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Putin pens NYT op-ed, politicians question his statements

With Vladimir Putin's bizarre and fascinating op-ed in "The New York Times" exploding via social media Wednesday evening, "Piers Morgan Live" invited both Howard Dean and Tom Ridge to share their reactions.

"The first half of the Putin piece was right. There are blocks of Al-Qaeda, who are on our terrorist list, who are fighting with the rebels. That's a danger," said Dean, the former Vermont governor and one-time presidential candidate. "The rest of this Putin piece was hooey, was Russian propaganda...You can't take Vladimir Putin or [Bashar al-]Assad seriously when they claim they didn't use chemical weapons."

Ridge, a former United States Secretary of Homeland Security, was equally skeptical of the Russian president's writing:

"The last individual in the broader world community that the United States, our President, and Republicans and Democrats should take advice from is Vladimir Putin," he told Piers Morgan. "I mean he has the audacity to talk about trust, about democratic traditions, about human rights, and about worrying about unrest in the Middle East. I don't think we had to take this op-ed very seriously."

Just minutes after a strange and polarizing op-ed by Vladamir Putin appeared on The New York Times' website, Piers Morgan welcomed both Bill Richardson and Rick Santorum, asking each politician to share his thoughts on the Russian president's writings.

"Putin is playing games. He's playing to the Congress, to the American people in a way he's in the driver seat. But, you know, it's also a product this op-ed of President Obama and President Putin have bad chemistry with each other," said Richardson, the former governor of New Mexico. "Putin is playing I think a very dangerous game."

Santorum, meanwhile, saw Putin's piece as an indictment on the Obama administration:

"This is what happens when we have weak leadership out of the United States and we try to lead from behind and we are indecisive in our actions," said the former Pennsylvania senator and presidential candidate. "Then we allow others to take the stage and lecture us about what American exceptionalism is or lecture us about how we pursue pass the peace and who are - who in fact should be leading the world."

Twelve years since the terror attacks of 9/11 cost nearly three thousand New Yorkers their lives, on Wednesday Piers Morgan invited Howard Lutnick to share his unique perspective.

The Chairman and CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, Lutnick lost 658 employees – including his brother – when hijacked planes crashed into the World Trade Center towers. In the dozen years since, Lutnick has used his business empire to help create a relief fund dedicated to raising money for victims' families:

"We set out to rebuild the company for sort of a pure purpose and I think the only reason it worked is because it was a pure purpose," said Lutnick, who to date has collected more than 200 million charitable dollars through Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund.

With a civil war waging in Syria, and America's role still uncertain, Lutnick offered his opinion on the state of the nation since September 11t, 2001:

"I think America has given up a lot of its ability to just stand strong on the fundamental points. You know, they allow things to waver," said the 52-year-old Lutnick. "Ultimately what America is supposed to go back to is the lines in the sand, you know, what matters to us and what doesn't and then bring the world along with them or let the world lead. And I think America has led in the past and it would be great to see America lead again."

I have no idea why all the hoopla re Putin. He's a president of a prominent nation, a world power. How is what Putin done any different than any US president and the polutics we've all lived with for years. Also what I get tired of is this perception that the US has to be #1, the only world leader or power. Ive grown up in an Intelligence family and I hear politicians and few have any idea. If history recalls we supplied the very chemical weapons Saddam Used on his people, so who are we to point fingers at Russia supplying the same to Syria? I can assure anyone if we strike, Russia will use defense missles to counter incoming strikes. And the US is NOT prepared to challenge Russia. Russia is in full control as Syria is demographically in their region, they have a base there, world is against strikes as are Americans. Putin has nothing to loose. He also controls the the natural gas flow to Europe This will work out if the world works together, or it's going to get really ugly

And I meant to add, it's hard to have faith in reporting when reporters use sound bites likr politicians. Tonight on CNN, Several different commentators stated "Putin's client" when talking Syria. So, just Like politicians, one starts a phrase, everyone latches on. Can we get original?

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